VOLLEYBALL | Ashland Arrow netters toppled in home opener

By LARRY STINECorrespondent

Saturday

Aug 24, 2019 at 6:33 PMAug 25, 2019 at 4:33 AM

It took the Ashland High School volleyball team way too long to figure out it needed turn their game up a few notches, and despite clicking in the third game to go up 2-1, the Arrows lost their final two games as better-late-than-never Sylvania Southview came away with the 3-2 independent win.

Southview won the first and last two matches by scores of 25-21, 25-20, and 15-11, with Ashland triumphant in matches 2 and 3, 25-13 and 25-20.

Southview showed up a half-hour late on the day due to bus scheduling problems, with the varsity game finally getting underway nearly 75 minutes later than usual.

But once play began in Ashland’s home opener of the 2019 season, the Arrows didn’t have that usual intensity needed and eventually paid the price.

"I will figure out what we need to do better to start matches off stronger because it’s unacceptable how we came out today," said veteran Ashland coach Jenise Vaughn. "I felt like set 1, it needed to be us on fire and I don’t know if it was nerves or overconfidence but we need to fix that if we’re going to be successful this season."

Vaughn knows she has Arrow squad full of talent but Southview also has a number of players loaded for bear with the likes of senior Caitlin O’Shea, juniors Anna Knauf and Hayden Kilgore, and freshman Sara Pahl all playing well for the Cougars.

"In our non-conference schedule now, we’re going to be playing teams like that all of the time," Vaughn said. "So we cannot rely only on our talent. We’ve got to outwork opponents and I felt like we got outworked today."

With the game tied at 1-1, Ashland came to a critical moment trailing 16-11 with Vaughn calling for a timeout, explaining to her team they needed to show more energy. The Arrows then cut Southview’s lead to 12-6 as junior outside hitter Hannah Walsh came up with a winner.

Then, Ashland senior Alicia Van Horn took over the show for a bit, showing an excellent serve with the Arrows able to come back to take an 18-16 lead.

Ashland, also using the talents of Van Horn’s fellow seniors Jyllian Lewis and Morgan Sexton, finished play off with a 25-20 win, seemingly having shown new life.

"We talk a lot about knowing your role and your role might be the superstar and put balls away but your role might be to get one good serve in, so we need to make sure everybody is doing their role well," Vaughn said. "Morgan had great blocks, she really owned the net. Jyllian is multi-faceted, she’s able to play many different positions and also does a good job for us in the back row."

"And Alicia has a tough role because we ask her to do different things on different days and she is a rock star back there so we’re really proud of how she’s handled that."

Junior outside hitter Karli Shepherd played her usual steady game, leading Ashland with 12 kills and 10 digs, with Lewis and Walsh each adding eight kills. Sophomore Jaden Smith came up big for the Arrows with 25 assists and 15 digs, with junior Mya Bowles scoring 24 digs and junior Adelyn Reef adding a dozen digs,

"There were moments of greatness, there were moments where we could have created a highlight reel of that match that was really good," Vaughn said. "But we could also create a reel of plays we took off or we weren’t communicating the way we should be, so we need to figure out a way to play more consistent, maybe five sets if that’s what it takes."

But there was no getting by the fact the Arrows did not play the caliber of ball they’re known for.

"Today overall was incredibly disappointing. We’ve played much stronger competition, in my opinion, and we’ve played much better than how we played today," Vaughn said. "This is a hard one to swallow. And I think it’s 100 percent effort, which is unacceptable if we want to play at the level we’re capable of playing at.

"So, it’s early and we always talk about learning from our mistakes so we can learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again," she added. "We’re real excited about starting (Ohio Cardinal) conference play on Tuesday and if we play the way we did today, there’s going to be a lot of question marks. But if come out and play the way we’re capable of playing, then we’ll be successful.’

Ashland opens OCC play on the road with a 7 p.m. Tuesday game at Mount Vernon.

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